Owen couldn't tell if what was happening was a trick, but he immediately tried to hit accept to leave to gate, but as soon as he tried selecting yes, a different system panel appeared.

*Unable to forfeit gate progress.*

Owen stared for a moment. "It won't let me leave either now, I had gotten a prompt to leave, but it disappeared." The man stared at Owen a smiled wistfully. "That is just how the system works, we are able to talk about it being the system, because in the end, one of us will end up dying. Even if you tried telling everyone that appeared after me, since they would be battles to the death, it wouldn't end up mattering. I'm a fool, I should've realized something like this would've happened. The first quest in a millennium and it turns out to death a death trap."

The man sigh and both of his three headed dogs ran up to him, doing their best to comfort him. "Do you know what level I am?" The man asked out of nowhere and Owen stammered. "Level eighty?" The man laughed as he pet his dogs, but shook his head after a moment. "I am level 653, pretty decent if I say so myself." He said grinning and Owen eye's bulged. The man laughed again at the look on Owen's face and gestured for him to sit.

He didn't move any closer, but Owen did end up sitting. "My world has been having the power of the system begin leaking from it. It can show up in a variety of ways, but when the system has deemed that a world has reached the limit of its potential, it slowly pulls its power away, to give the world the time to recover, before the world inevitably get reinitiated into the system far into the future." The man said, a wistful look in his eyes.

"My quest was the first quest in a millennium in my kingdom. It signified the return of the system and I stormed towards the arena, in order to complete the quest." he said, and a system screen appeared in front of Owen.

*An intruder has torn its way through the kingdom's boundaries, slaying both the Librarian Sage and the Ancient Illusionist Sage. Defend your Lord and wake your kingdom's hidden potential.

Reward: 100 years of System presence.*

"I don't think I have ever seen anything like this." Owen said in awe, but he had started to feel even more guilty. If this man was truly alive and fighting for his world, it felt unfair that they had to die as a means of Owen getting money. Of course, Owen didn't want to die and he would fight for that, but it still felt ruthless. The man seemed to have read Owen's thoughts and smiled. "Don't bother yourself too much with it, tier six gate are portals that lead to other real worlds, though we were never able to determine whether or not the people inside them were alive or copies of previous versions of them."

"For all I know, my kingdom has already fallen and my existence and quest are merely there in case you told me we were inside of a gate." He said and slowly got up onto his feet. Owen did as well as the two once again squared off against each other. Owen was hating this gate more and more, but it made him curious what would happen when this gate would break. He let his defense drop and the man mimic with a confused look on his face. "What about a tier six gate break, does that let you guys come to my world?" Owen asked, feeling slightly hopeful, since he could always fail intentionally, due to the time constraints.

He spirits fell, as the man dropped into a battle stance and shook his head. "No, only the beasts of my world would be able to cross through, though wouldn't that have been nice. I hate to fight you, especially since I know you are just a kid, but I can't risk failing my world. While it won't end, rebuilding would be a bitch." The man said winking, before he dashed forward, a large club appearing out of nowhere.

A feeling of death radiated from the the club as it crashed down towards him. He had to twist his body, while lifting his sword to deflect the hit, but despite his quick reaction, he still felt the bones in his shoulder crack. He threw out a kick, while expecting it to be blocked, but instead the beast tamer let it land against his knee. Owen expected it to at least buckle, but the tamer hadn't even flinched.

Owen pumped HP through his body as quickly as possible, as he was in an even worse position now and the beats tamer's dogs were still just watching the battle. He boosted his movements with energetic embrace and switched his sword for a spear. He began his own flurry of blows, in hopes they would be blocked or dodged, but a transparent shield appeared in the air, blocking the first set of blows. Tremors rocked through Owen's arms and he desperately tried to push the tamer onto the back foot.

The only time he had surprised his opponent so far was his weapon changing, so Owen decided to rely on that for momentum. He managed to deflect a blow of the club, and switched his spear into a sword mid swing. The tamer moved to block the new strike, but Owen quickly changed it to a zweihander, the increase in weight, making it miss the man's block by barely an inch. Owen felt triumphant as sword cut through the leather and tore through flesh as it dug deep into the tamer's side.

Owen heard a grunt of pain and quickly charged his blade with chaos, pouring as much of the foreign energy into the wound as possible. Owen saw the man's eyes shift as he realized what the foreign energy was, but to Owen's surprise, instead of the chaos increasing the damage, the tamer seemed refreshed somehow. "Well, wasn't that nice of you, I'm impressed you have access to chaos, but I'm a poor opponent for that ability." The man grinned and orange and yellow flames burst out of every pour in the man's body.

Owen jumped back and his keen eye activated, though Owen kept it to just the base information.

*Beast Tamer - Level 87

Beast Tamer - Level 88

Beast Tamer - Level 89*

Owen watched in horror as chaos seemed to infuse itself into the tamer's very being, all the while, his level rising without an end in sight. "Hmm, something you've done with the chaos managed to help me break some of the system limiters. Don't worry, I won't be able to reach my old level of power, but I will reach the max level allowed by this tiered gate. Oh? I can feel more of my skills unlocking as well, thank you." The man had a devilish grin on his face as power began radiating from him and Owen stared in awe at the power being demonstrated, just in the man's aura.

Both cerberus seemed to grow larger and Owen's heart sank as their levels increased as well. The only happy side effect was that the tamer's level seemed to have finally stopped rising.

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*Beast Tamer - Level 100

Cerberus - Level 75

Cerberus - Level 75*

Owen really missed Briar in that moment, even if he knew that they wouldn't have been much help in a fight at this level. Owen sighed and flex his energetic embrace skill to its very max and switched his weapon back into its basic sword form. He reactivated keen eye and forcibly kept it repeatedly identifying the enemy group. The last skill he activated was his farseeing skill. He wasn't sure how much help it would be against this enemy type, but he needed to go all out, which meant he needed to use his combat resonance as well.

"I am known as Bear, as you can tell, it fits my class quite well." Bear said grinning and Owen nodded back at him. "I'm Owen, I guess you can already see my class." Owen said as he prepared, but the tamer shook his head. "No, you're information is blocked from me, all I see is your level, which I must say is impressive for being able to fight me." Bear grinned as he also got into a ready stance. "Well, my class is one based on the polymath, so I can do most everything." Owen said as he also got ready for blows again. Surprise flashed across Bear's face, but it was quickly gone as they faced off.

The first to reignite the battle wasn't either of them, but one of the cerberus, that looked like a german shepherd from earth. The other immediately moved around the flank and Owen recognized it as an irish greyhound. While Owen knew they were enemies, there was still some human part of him that didn't want to hurt a dog, even if it was aggressive. One glance at Bear as both dogs attacked, made Owen realize that it was probably the point, as an evil grin was displayed across Bear's face.

Owen knew he couldn't be soft against any enemy, so he calmed his breathing as he fought back both dogs and slowly shifted his attention towards Bear. An energy was beginning to collect around Bear's hands and Owen could feel a sense of danger radiating from it. With every skill on hand, he smiled when he saw the notification finally appear in his periphery.

*You have witnessed the Beast Tamer, Bear, fight and have been able to grasp some of their fighting style. Would you like to view the emperor defeating this type of enemy in battle? Y/N?*

Owen hit yes and the world slowed down to a crawl around him. Owen wasn't sure he would need it, but Bear's ability to heal from chaos wasn't something he understood and it was better to be careful. An image of Xerxes appeared and Owen paid close attention to each movement. He had learned that reading the body language was just as important and Owen did his best to follow along with the flow of the battle. It ended with both dogs dead and Bear on his last legs.

As the image faded, Owen forced himself to recreate each movement, though his goal was different. One of the dogs lunged as Owen dashed towards Bear. Rather than bisecting it with a slash imbued with resonance, Owen changed the weapon mid swing once more, shifting its form into a heavy hammer. It crashed down on the greyhound cerberus's main head, sending it into the ground hard. He hadn't hit hard enough to kill it, but it had a hard time moving.

Owen knew he had already strayed from the path of his skill a little far, but he continued pushing through as the second cerberus ran around to flank him as Bear dashed forwards for his own attack. Owen changed the weapon into a staff and caught the club on the end, while digging the butt of the staff against the ground. It worked like a nail and the staff was dug deep into the ground, but it gave Owen time to shift his body, grabbing the cerberus as it attacked and he flipped it in an alligator roll, as he dodged the next strike from Bear's club.

He was already straining against his limits as both of the other head had bite down deep into his arms, but he sent a small wisp of chaos into its jaw, before smashing a fist down on the main head as the others let go in surprise. It was finally just him and Bear for a few moments as both cerberus struggled to recover. Owen had almost exactly followed the steps Xerxes had taken inside of the skill, but he had finally gotten to the point where he couldn't base any of his movements off of the vision anymore. "So, you really have that dumb skill, huh," Bear grunted, as his club swung for Owen's head.

Owen was still prone on the ground and he kicked with all of his strength, forcing mana and chaos into his legs as they collided with the club. The problem, he already had dangerous amounts of mana and chaos in his legs due to his energetic embrace skill, so when the his legs collided with the club, he wasn't surprised to see both his legs get compound fractures. Owen screamed from the pain, but charged even more HP towards his legs. Bear seemed amused at the defense and shook out his wrist, before making another swing.

A barely formed essence marble was thrown towards the attack and Owen purified the mana in less than a second. A huge gust of wind threw him from the attack's path. Owen managed to recover his staff, turning it into a dagger, before changing it back into a sword once it was removed from the ground. He had been so stupid. The path that he had been shown to victory, only had the staff launched into the ground, because in the original vision, one of the cerberus's heads had been there. Owen had hoped by recreating the instance it would be easier to continue following the vision he had seen with his skill, but he had been wrong.

Now he had been bitten on both arms and something the cerberus had done, was preventing the full power of Owen's boosting ability from taking effect as it slowly spread throughout his body. He had waited to use any combat resonance though and as Bear launched himself forward, space seemingly shrinking between his weapon and Owen's head, Owen let out his first resonance attack. A quick slash from his sword was all it took to send out an unbelievable amount of power.

Apparently, Bear had still been holding back somewhat, because Owen could sense the same energy began overflowing from his club in a moment, but it was too late. HIs club fell into two pieces and the power continued, severing Bear's arm. The first grunt of pain Owen had heard from the man as he seemed to flex his lost arm, it growing back at a visible rate, but Owen, while tired, was not excited for a possible round 3. Both cerberus had begun to stir and Owen raise the point of his blade at Bear, a sad smile on his face.

"You're too soft, they will have to die after I die anyways," grunted Bear as he stopped trying to heal his arm. Owen sighed and quickly charged his attack with resonance. "I know, but I at the very least didn't want you to have to see them die." Owen said and Bear smiled. "I appreciate it." Owen's swing decapitated Bear and he turned regretfully to the dogs. A quick slash did them both in and Owen sighed as he sat down as the gate formed.

*You have slain the empowered version of the Beast Tamer

You have earned 25,000 credits

31,250 experience gained.

15,000 experience lost due to Polymath's keen eye.*

Owen had to think and he quickly turned his attention away from the notifications. He had handled the fight terribly, not only that, he had let himself almost die, because he had wanted to spare some dogs that he ended up needing to kill anyways. The only consolation was that as soon as all three enemies had died, they dispersed into dust, which Owen hoped meant that they had been recreations of the original.

He still hadn't had enough true life or death experience and had expected things to be easy, simply because he was too confident and thought he was strong enough to lead the battle in the direction he had wanted. His other mistake was not having fought enough intelligent enemies, Bear had constantly thrown feints into his attacks, which Owen hadn't had to deal with yet. Overall, he had been too confident and he could only try to be better, but first he had to heal up and try not to get demolished on the next floor.

A part of him was still hesitant, since he had learned a lot more about the system and how some worlds where people had been integrated, slowly lost potential, causing the system to leave. It was an interesting thought, but he wasn't strong enough to even begin considering the implications, but he did decide he would try talking to each of the bosses and see if there was anything he could learn from them.